Sarnia-Lambton was paralyzed Monday by a vicious winter storm that closed roads and schools, shuttered businesses and suspended truck traffic on the Blue Water Bridge

A nasty series of squalls off Lake Huron dumped up to 20 centimetres in some areas and piled drifts as high as two metres (six feet) on some roads.

Lines of stranded traffic reached a kilometre in length and all city and county snow plows were pulled from service until conditions improved. A few plows got stuck themselves.

At Sawmill Creek in Camlachie, visibility was reduced to zero, snow reached the top of home doors and no one was able to leave, Janet Alexander told The Observer.

"We have snow drifts of over six feet (and) some of our employees are stuck on Mandaumin for the past eight hours. Police can't get to them," she said.

The weather was a shocker to Paul DiRezze, an experienced Sarnia plow operator.

"When you get out on the other side of Modeland it's a completely different world," he said Monday. "There's so much snow and wind. Visibility is nil."

DiRezze and his Sarnia colleagues - 13 city plows drivers and 15 contractors - began clearing slush Sunday evening that quickly turned to ice as temperatures plummeted to -12 C and winds gusted to 90 kilometres per hour overnight.

"There are quite a few drivers who are considerate, but there are the odd few, they don't think," he said.

Hundreds of vehicles were stranded or slid into ditches as the violent squalls created whiteout conditions, especially east of the city.

Hydro One pulled its crews off the roads overnight because of dangerous driving conditions, advising its Lambton customers they would be without service help in the event of an outage.

Lambton EMS also issued a notice that with no plows and few police vehicles on the road, ambulances could be delayed.

Acting manager Jeff Brooks said the service was forced to issue the unusual advisory because several ambulances became trapped in the snow responding to calls. With no plows emergency vehicles were as vulnerable to other cars and trucks, he said.

"We're still responding to calls we can get to. Some of the roads are impassable," he said.

Brooks urged people not to panic, however.

"Rest assured, if you need us, we're going to get to you."

The Blue Water Bridge took the unusual step of suspending commercial truck traffic. Vice-president operations Stan Korosec said it was only option after Highway 402 was closed.

As many as 50 trucks waited at the bridge plaza with nowhere to go.

"This is pretty rare," he said. "But we don't often get snow squalls like this."

Passenger traffic was still able to cross the bridge.

Numerous programs and events were cancelled, including a meeting of Sarnia city council.

But the wild weather wasn't bad news for everyone. The Chapman and Tetreault families took advantage of the snowfall to go tobogganing at Centennial Park.

Sarnian Lloyd Pemberton was busy using his snowblower to clear his sidewalk and lane for two and a half hours. He said there isn't much you can do about winter so we'd better get used to it.

"It's Canada, what can I say. Either go south or stay here and take it."